Marysville Healing After Shooting

Marysville-Pilchuck High School surely will never be the same follow Friday’s events, and the school’s students and community are now surely in a healing process follow the shooting carried out by Jaylen Ray Fryberg. Fryberg was known by many students at the Washington high school as a popular and well-liked guy, who would have never snapped and hurt his peers. The attack took place at 10:39 am in the school cafeteria on Friday, and today Marysville-Pilchuck highschool is in a position of picking up the pieces in order to find a way to move forward.

Marysville is located about an hour North of Seattle. The community grieved on Saturday following the horrific events of Friday; the community moved on where it was necessary, and took a step back where it was best as well. Just like any other high school, sports are part of the culture at Marysville-Pilchuck where the football team has been good this year. Although nobody is really thinking about how the sports are affected in the aftermath of Friday’s shootings, rival Oak Harbor forfeited Saturday’s game with Marysville-Pilchuck, leaving the title behind and in the hands of the healing school. Although sports may not be considered as a way of coping with Friday’s tragedy, Oak Harbor’s actions have surely been welcomed by the school that is still wondering what its next steps will be in overcoming this tragedy.

Four students remain hospitalized following the shootings by Fryberg. His two cousins, the two males hit by targeted bullets, remain in critical condition. Once was hit in the jaw and the other in the head, requiring extensive surgery. The two girls who were hit are also recovering, although not in great shape, according to reports.

Fryberg has been considered “well-liked” and “normal” by many of his peers who knew him before the shootings. It seems that all of the students who witnessed the attacks are just as surprised as anyone else. Reports earlier indicated that a lunchroom staff member intervened with the shooting. After more investigation and questions by police and other authorities, it appears that in the intervening came from a first-year social studies teacher, Megan Silberberger. Silberberger told reporters that she acted out of “instinct.” According to eye-witness reports, Silberberger jumped into the mix of the shooting while Fryberg was busy reloading his gun. Some have suggested that Fryberg was killed in the struggle of the .40 caliber firearm, while others believe that Fryberg did indeed end his own life. Silberberger has requested privacy, and just like Marysville as a whole, she wants to work on healing following the shooting.

By some accounts, Fryberg did not look the same after his bullets made contact with the five students, two of them cousins, that he aimed at. One student recalls that he “looked different” and that there was a look on Fryberg’s face that he had just realized what he had done.

News emerged that Fryberg had gone after his own cousins as a spark to the shooting. Detectives are still not clear on a motive of the killer, but students recount that Fryberg had recently been in a fight. Some have even offered information of Fryberg having an issue over a girl. Fryberg is dead at the age of 14, and leaves Marysville in a process of healing after his shooting has killed two and injured four.